A ‘Coal’ Building on Campus?

A ‘Coal’ Building on Campus?

The Nation‘s sports editor Dave Zirin argues that corporate naming rights on college campuses are a bad idea.

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

Joseph W. Craft III, head of a company called Alliance Coal, is willing to donate $7 million to the University of Kentucky for a new dorm facility if the school puts the word “coal” in the dorm’s name. Nation sports editor Dave Zirin visits the Rachel Maddow Show to discusses why this is ridiculous, pointing out the irony that the building would run on green energy. Most importantly, however, in order to build the dorm, the university would have to knock down the Joe B. Hall Lodge, named for an alumnus who played on the basketball team and later coached them to a national championship. Zirin pleads for keeping corporate branding off college campuses, and hopes that coalitions and basketball fans will take action to prevent this from happening.

–Alana Levinson

Check out more great Nation videos on our YouTube channel.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x